Ties That Bind: A Muse Urban Fantasy (The Veil Series Book 5) (7 page)

I
had
no idea what Li’el’s game was, but I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. Perhaps he did just want to pick the winning side, but there had to be more to it. He didn’t need to get involved at all. He could easily sit back and watch from the sidelines. He wanted something from me. Of that, I was certain. But I had more important things to worry about. Stefan, for one. I had the key. I couldn’t waste another second getting him to safety.
What if he’s still rabid? What then?
I shoved that thought aside with a verbal snarl.

“The moment you release his prisoner, Asmodeus will know,” Li’el said, impossibly quiet as he drifted ghost-like beside me.

“I can’t leave him there a second longer. I won’t.”

He stewed on my words for a few beats. “You care for the Winter King.”

“His name is Stefan.”

“You care for this Stefan?”

“I protect those who’ve earned it.”

We descended into the bowels of the fortress, hot on Samien’s tail. Li’el was right, of course. Asmodeus would know, and he’d look to me as the prime suspect. The best thing I could do was get the hell out of Dodge before my father suspected anything. But that wouldn’t help the veil. I had two options. Return to Boston and hole up somewhere with Stefan while he recuperated. Or strike out on my own in the netherworld and hope to find Jerry before something big and nasty found me. Boston seemed like the safest bet, but Asmodeus knew my home. He’d draw me out, probably using my friends as bait. If we ran back there, we’d buy maybe a day or two at the most. Another battle in Boston’s streets was the last thing I wanted. That left option two: on the run in the netherworld, where the wildlife consisted of blood-hungry beasts, hellhounds and all manner of lesser nasties that didn’t give a damn if my name was Destruction.

Stefan lay against the back wall, eyes closed, breathing slowly. I puffed a sigh of relief. Much of the damage I’d done—the burns, the ash—had healed, and his glacial shimmer had returned. But two burns marred his chest. Two little half-blood handprints: the scars of my twisted talent.

I fumbled with the key, dropped it, and stumbled over my own feet. Stefan didn’t wake. What if, when he opened his eyes, he lunged for me? What if I’d destroyed our love? What if the damage had buried it deep inside him?
What if—what if—what if.

I picked up the key and fumbled. Li’el plucked it from my hand, crouched beside Stefan, and opened the manacles. Stefan’s eyes flickered but didn’t open.

“I could transport him elsewhere,” Li’el offered.

“No,” I growled. “I don’t know you. I don’t trust you. If you so much as glance at him wrong, I’ll chargrill your wings.”

Li’el purred as if the idea actually appealed to him. It was more likely the threat warmed him in that soft spot he had for bloody violence. Goddamn demons.

“I have a proposition for you, Muse,” Li’el began.

“Not now.” I crouched in front of Stefan but couldn’t bring myself to touch him. His eyes moved beneath closed lids.
Please don’t hate me.
He didn’t deserve any of this. All he’d ever wanted was to be left to get on with a normal life. Demon hunter, mechanic, brother. It wasn’t fair. I reached out but didn’t touch him. The heat of my hand pushed against the ice sparkling in his hair.

“I will take Stefan away from here.” Li’el’s voice had tightened with urgency. “You must tell Asmodeus this was my doing. He’s unlikely to pursue me. It will strengthen his belief you are his.”

“I am his.”

Li’el gave me a dry look through dark lashes. “And I am virtuous.”

Ooh, sarcasm. Li’el was turning out to be something of an anomaly among demons. “You could just as easily take Stefan to Asmodeus and rat me out.”

“Yes, I could. But I do not wish for Asmodeus to be king. Chaos and control must be restored. If Asmodeus succeeds in killing Baal, balance will never be restored. As I said, I merely want to be on the prevailing side. I saw you in battle. Your father did not. I have no doubt you are quite capable of destroying an army of demons. I do not wish to be one of those turned to dust.”

Well, what do y’know? A demon who didn’t underestimate me. “But…the blade, the lessons…”

“You have no intention of using the blade on Baal.”

Damn. If Li’el had figured it out, so might my father. “But should you need the blade, call to it. It will come, or it won’t.”

“Gee, that’s comforting.” To do this, I’d have to trust Li’el, for all intents and purposes, Satan. Trust Satan. Did he think I was born yesterday? “No.”

“Go.” Stefan growled the word and fluttered his eyes open. He reached out and took Li’el’s offered hand without so much as a sneer. Pride hauled Stefan to his feet. He swayed and clenched his hand around Li’el’s forearm. His gaze skirted mine. I rose to a stand, but still, he wouldn’t look me in the eye.

“Stefan, I…” All I wanted to do was take Stefan home and pretend this nightmare was over. He rolled his shoulders, and wings of ice grew slowly, each fractal building on the next. The wings—crystal clear and razor sharp—were a good sign, even if they took an age to rebuild.

“Go,” he said again, this time with force. “I’ll be okay. I’m always okay.”

“Wrath wants you dead.” I’d no more said the words before Samien produced a dirk and lunged. I’d like to say I hesitated, that a part of me was too human to kill, but I didn’t even blink. With unerring calm, I stepped between Samien and Stefan, knocked the dagger aside, clamped my hands around Samien’s skull and twisted, breaking his neck in one jarring twitch. From thought to execution, it took less than a second. Samien’s body crumpled to the floor at my feet. He’d have told Asmodeus everything. He’d have killed Stefan for Wrath. His death was justified. A snarl rippled across my lips. “I protect those who’ve earned it. You were not worthy.”

Stefan’s cool element coiled around me, pulling me back from the moment. “Muse. Go.”

“I…” I didn’t want to go without him.

“Make
this”
—he gestured at the burns on his chest— “mean something.”

Guilt sliced through me. “I didn’t want to hurt you.”

“I know.” Stefan rolled his shoulders and winced, working out the pain from seized muscles. Li’el gripped his shoulder as he wavered on his feet. He smiled, and his face softened. “I know, Muse. It’s all right. We’ll talk. When this is over. We’ll say everything we need to say. You owe me a date, remember? No backing out.”

He was being nice, too nice. My lip quivered. “With ice cream?”

“Exactly.”

“As delightful as this lovely reunion is,” Li’el drawled, “I would rather be elsewhere when Asmodeus discovers his pet is missing. Winter King, will you leave with me?”

Stefan lifted tired eyes to the Prince of Pride and nodded.

“Li’el, I will destroy you if anything should happen to him.” My wing arched wide—a reflex—the demon equivalent of cracking my knuckles before a fight. My threat gained more weight if one considered the dead demon at my feet. Li’el inclined his head the smallest of degrees. I slid my glare to Stefan. “Don’t do anything stupid, heroic, or typically you. Just don’t do anything until I can get to you.”

“I’m sure I can refrain from the heroics for a while.” We looked at each other as though we should shake hands, hug, or pat one another on the shoulder. He was beaten up and hurting for sure, but the glint of mischief hadn’t left his eyes. Maybe my burst of lust really had just been a temporary state. I hoped so. I couldn’t stand it if he hated me all over again.

Li’el cleared his throat.

“Right.” I backed up. “I’ll find you, and soon.” I wanted to go with them. I didn’t care where. The dungeon, the fortress, my father… I wasn’t sure if I could survive it all.

Stefan straightened, flexed his wings, and gripped Li’el’s outstretched hand. Black vapor swirled up and embraced them, and in the next moment, they were gone. A cloud of powdered dust drifted where they’d stood a heartbeat before.

I knelt by Samien’s body and pushed fire and flame into his flesh, burning his remains to ash. I’d killed a demon with my bare hands and felt nothing. This was different than when I’d devastated hundreds on the battlefield. I’d hungered for Samien’s death. I’d wanted it.
I get my wants.
I wasn’t sure if I was becoming the monster my father wanted me to be or if I’d always been one.

I made my way out of the stalls and back through the fortress, readying myself for Asmodeus’s wrath.

I
woke
with my father’s hot breath searing my cheek, his hand clamped on my arm, and his demon body smothering mine. His breath hissed through his teeth, and his flesh blazed with enough heat to scorch the bed.

I’d known this moment was coming.

“Where is he?” Asmodeus seethed.

“I—” the hand around my arm tightened, squeezing flesh and muscle in his fist.

“Lie to me, and I’ll take your wing and your mind. I will bury you in fantasy so deeply you will lose all sense of yourself. I have broken minds far stronger than yours, Daughter.”

The ghost of my brother drifted back to me in my father’s words, and fear clamped its icy grip around my heart. My element thrashed and knotted around me, eager to protect, but at the same time wanting to combine with my father’s ethereal touch. “I don’t know.” His massive wing arched over me while his huge crimson body pushed down, crushing me. Relentless waves of heat pushed down. I drew it in through my demon skin, embraced it, welcomed it. My father could snap my neck with ease. Inside, I locked my humanity away and wrapped demon thoughts around the most vulnerable parts of me. If I submitted, he’d tear into me. Mammon wouldn’t have looked twice at me had I not been the fighter he’d suspected.

I was the Mother of Destruction. I was every demon’s nightmare. I had the Prince of Greed wrapped around my heart and a lifetime of emotional fallout to shore up my conviction. My father would not beat me. No demon would beat me down ever again. I was fire, and I was hungry. I twisted a little, enough to lift my hand and plant it on my father’s face. A touch, that’s all it took. I thrust all of my rage, my disgust, my passion, into the Crimson Lord, poured everything I had into him, wrapped it around the pulsing white hot core, sunk metaphysical claws in and tore it out. His yellow eyes bulged, and he roared. The bellow rolled over me, trembled the floors, and shook the very foundations. But I wasn’t done. Lust: the liquid body of heat he’d threatened to ruin me with. I shoved it all at him. It wasn’t a neat, clinical attack but a ferocious assault.

He scrambled back. His wings—thrown wide and searing hot—beat the air, summoning waves of sweltering heat, and still, I pulled his fire into me and pushed the horrible slippery lust into him. On my feet, I stalked toward my father and saw my own fury reflected in his eyes. He hunched, wings draped either side of him, and looked up at me.

Fire traced through my extended wing membrane. I glowed from within. Flames licked and writhed about me, coiling around their queen, and oh how I wanted more.

“I am fire. I am destruction. And I will destroy you, Father.” I reached for the veil, called to the blade, willed it into my hand, and it came. I pointed the tip to his throat. Blue elemental flame coiled its length.

I stood tall, as once, Mammon, the Prince of Greed had told me to. The glow faded from my father’s wings; his fire was mine now. I had it all. It lived in me.

“Daughter…” He dipped his chin. Huge shoulders bowed, wings limp, he regarded me with a look of cool acceptance. A quiver ran through my body. I was demon, I was destruction, and I reveled in that moment.
My own father, a Prince of Hell, hunched before me.
I wanted to sink my fangs into his neck and tear out his throat.

I dialed down the rage and eased back on his element, allowing it to seep back into him.

He visibly shook and sucked in, breathing heat back into his body. “You are ready. Go to Baal, draw him out, be the demon you were fated to be.”

I laughed and gave myself a shake, raining ash around me. Oh, I’d be demon, right up until my humanity told him where to shove the princely blade, my brother’s prophetic words, and all the demons who’d ground me into the dirt over the years.

I inclined my head. “We will stand together. Amanat.” A promise kept safe. A debt that must be returned. I was that promise, kept in safe-keeping by Akil. A Prince of Hell’s daughter. And I had returned. I wasn’t done with my father.

That was my promise to him.

I
left
the fortress at sunbirth—
dawn
—walked right on through the gates with demon gazes clawing across my flesh. They’d never seen a half blood walk freely in the netherworld. Half bloods were chained, always escorted. Most were dragged behind their owners. I walked down the charred-earth path, wing relaxed behind me, and didn’t so much as glance back.

I strode down the fortress pathway toward the burned forest. The blush red sky to the east was my only guide. And I knew there were beasts between Jerry and me that would indeed chew me up and spit me out.
Half-blood deceiver,
I’d been called by numerous princes. They were right. I was a walking trap. The demons wouldn’t be able to help themselves. I looked and smelled like weakness. Until I exploded. I’d have to keep my wits about me. I hoped to make it to Jerry’s sanctum before nightfall. Not even the princes willingly roamed the netherworld after sundeath.

I wove between the naked trees, head up, footfalls light, wing tucked close. I would get to Jerry. But not for Asmodeus. The King of Hell would soon be my ally. At least, I hoped he would. The walk left room for my thoughts to churn and doubts to creep in. What if Jerry was all demon? What if he had no interest in restoring the veil? The princes had said he was trying, but I’d never trusted the words of a Prince of Hell, and I wasn’t about to start then.

My only battle during that netherworld day, as I traveled on foot toward the east plains, was with myself. Human and demon, complete for the first time, I warred with human emotion while in my demon skin. It was…strange. Until the veil had fallen, I’d been two creatures, but now I was one. The demon was me. I’d always referred to her as a separate entity, but she wasn’t. Maybe she never had been. It was all me. It had taken the fall of the veil, my attempt to kill Stefan, and Akil’s death, for me to finally realize what and who I was. The sum of my parts was deadly. Li’el had doubted if I knew who I really was. I knew. I was the half-blood deceiver who could massacre a battlefield of demons.

Sundeath came too soon, heralded by distant demon cries. Night crept over the netherworld, and with it, the land drew in a breath. I’d walked all day, only stopping to scoop water from a stream. My feet were sore from the harsh terrain, and my muscles protested. I kept an eye on the darkening skies, wishing I had both wings so I could at least try to fly. What a feeling that must be: the freedom of flight. I pined for my lost wing. I’d lived in a human world, doing human things, with human thoughts. I hadn’t needed my wing in Boston. Being back in the netherworld reminded me of what I’d lost.

The forest changed to open grassland. Between me and the plains where Jerry’s sanctum was supposed to be, lay miles of savannah. As the light faded and sprites began to dance in the sky above, I knew I should find a hollow and curl myself into it to wait out the night. I swept my gaze over the sea of grass. To begin with, I ignored the ripples in the reeds, assuming the wind riffled through them. But there was no wind.
Snakes in the grass…
Rivulets of movement cut the grass down ahead of them, coming closer. Six, no, seven… Demons. It had to be. Breath held, pulse fluttering, I watched the veins slither and weave, converging and then pulling apart again. Whatever they were, they were smaller than me. If I reached out with my element, they’d know I was there. Perhaps they’d pass me by and disappear into the trees behind me. I glanced back and saw more veins opening in the grass, weaving toward me. How many? Ten? More? And they were definitely headed for me. I couldn’t stall any longer. I reached inside and surged my element outward in an invisible halo. Fifteen heat sources pinged on my mental map. Fifteen demons burning hot. At the battle of Boston, I’d incinerated more with a flicker of thought. They’d been in my city. And I protected what was mine with everything I had. But here…the netherworld was their home. I had no right to slaughter demons here. I wasn’t like Adam. I’d never be like Adam.

One exploded out of the grass, all fangs, claws, scales and armor. I lifted a hand, pushed my element into its body, and blasted a narrow shot of heat into it. The beast— whatever it was—turned to ash the second before it would have slammed into me. An ash cloud of its remains puffed over my body, sticking to my skin, lips, and eyes.

Another beast sprang up from my left. I spun and thrust flame through its flesh, turning it into a cloud as I had the first one. Another. Flash. Gone. It was a pointless assault, but even as they saw their kin fall, they didn’t stop. They couldn’t. I was a weak thing. Their instincts told them to tear me apart.

A battle cry from above was all the warning I received before the hunter struck. Cold talons tore into my shoulder and chest as we tumbled to the earth. Its wings fluttered and beat. An elongated jaw with needle teeth snapped toward my throat. I punched it aside, slammed my hand into its neck, and burned the thing from the inside out. More cries echoed above. Hunters spiraled above like vultures, and all around me the demons crowded closer.

I draped myself in flame and flexed elemental muscle, sending out a beat of rippling heat that repelled the demons enough for me to stand, but they weren’t going to flee. I spread my wing and my stance, bolstering my size, and sneered. “I am not what you see. I am killer. I am destroyer, but I will let you live. Just leave me be.”

Hunter cries barreled through the night, and the beasts surrounding me snarled. I had them all pegged and could blast them to bits in the next heartbeat. Liquid fire dripped from my claws. We stood in that moment, the beasts and me, eyeing one another. More demons spilled in from the fringes of the savanna. A crowd of lessers bore down on me, and a sky full of demons spiraled above. I shone like a star in their center, a star ready to swallow them all. “Don’t make me kill you,” I hissed. They were just lessers, just demons. They didn’t know any better, which was why they wouldn’t back down. Akil had once deterred them with a growl, but not this many, not when bloodlust rode them.

I spread my arms and breathed in a world’s worth of heat.
Don’t make me do this.
I’d killed enough. Wasn’t it time for the killing to stop? The beasts snarled. Tails twitched. Claws clicked. Moments dragged on until I realized they weren’t attacking. I still blazed, a thing of flame, but they neither attacked nor withdrew. They watched, almost as though waiting.
What the fu—

One of the cat-like beasts with scaled skin hunched down on its forepaws and planted its three heads between its legs. Eyeless and blind, it sniffed around my feet, seeking…permission? Another dropped down onto its belly, tail flicking. A rippling
prrp
from the back of its throat seemed almost…playful. I’d seen one of those beasts before at Blackstone. Akil’d had one in the kitchen while playing poker with the King of Hell.

I’d controlled lessers the night I’d discovered who I was and ordered them to guard Stefan. Was that what this was on a much larger scale? I turned slowly, not wanting to spook the herd into jumping me. They might still kill me with their countless numbers. Tails danced and entwined. Haunches rolled. They wanted to play? A smile tugged at the tight corner of my mouth, revealing a hint of fang.
Just demon…
But I’d been wrong. There was more going on here than instinct. They knew me. They accepted me. Did the lesser demons of the netherworld—beasts feared by prince and higher elemental alike—want to play?

Slowly—so damn slowly—I reached a hand toward the nearest catbeast. One of its heads easily dwarfed my hand. Any moment, it could snap its jaws around my arm and rip it clean off. It sniffed at my hand. I couldn’t touch the creature. My skin would burn it. But I did sweep a hand over its face, gently pushing warmth over its scaled feline features. Three heads purred as one, and a tiny bark of laughter slipped from me.
Oh, if Akil could see me now…

The circle of catbeasts dissipated as they flowed back in to the grass. Some stayed and seemed to deliberately trample the grass down. Hunters caterwauled and sailed off into the night, leaving me with a pair of huge three-headed demon cats for company.

I released my hold on the heat. “Okay then, I guess we’re buddies.” They circled around and around and dropped their huge bulks onto makeshift beds, heads between their paws, eyes on me. The message was clear.
We ain’t movin’, so get your fiery hide over here and sit with us.
I obliged with a hand touched to my heart.

Be all you can be.
Demon and human.

I curled up between my catbeast companions, pulling my wing close, and listened to their bellows-like breathing. Tiny diamond-lighted sprites danced in the starless netherworld sky.

The netherworld had accepted me as its own.